At the outbreak of war HMS Venomous was
commanded by Lt Cdr G.F.W. McIntyre RN and his "No 1" was Lt D.A.R.
Duff RN "a tall man with a quiet assured air" who was called Dan by his friends and fellow officers. Lt Duff did not serve on
Venomous for long but he went
on to have a long and distinguished naval career. He died on the 19
August less than two weeks after celebrating his hundredth
birthday on the 3 August 2012.
Cdr Daniel Alexander [Wyatt] Rawson Duff RN was the eldest son of Adm. Sir Arthur Allan Morison Duff, KCB, JP, DL (1874-1952)
and in June 1940 married Barbara Diana Pound, only daughter of Adm. of
the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCB (1877-1943). This brief account is based on the memoir he wrote for the family in
2003 and has been put together by his son, Simon Duff.
*****
Father
joined the Navy in September 1926 aged 14 as a full career officer.
After Dartmouth his Midshipman's time was spent in HMS Renown and then HMS Dragon.
He went to Greenwich for his Subs courses and then in about 1936 became
Flag Lieutenant to Dudley Pound. Simon Duff quotes from his father's
memoir:
"My next appointment was to the WW1 destroyer Venomous
to join on 31st July (1939) when she recommissioned from reserve.
She had lain for ten years literally chained to the dockyard wall at
Rosyth along with thirty other ships of that vintage. They were all
being brought out of reserve to be readied for a reserve fleet review
to be held in September ordered by Winston Churchill, a stroke of
genius on his part as subsequent events proved. Winston had only
recently taken over as First Lord in the government headed by Neville
Chamberlain.
We duly commissioned with a Portsmouth crew a large proportion of
whom were reservists, including some senior ratings who had only just
taken their pensions.
We had one steam trial together with a practice shoot of her 4 inch guns and
them steamed south for Weymouth Bay where the Reserve Fleet
concentrated. By now the probability of war erupting was very
evident and our time was spent at Portsmouth embarking war stores
and ammunition and sporadic exercises in the Channel with any other
destroyers available. Then to Portland for a crash course in
anti-submarine training with the submarines there for Ospreys usual
programme. It was a busy time as many ships companies were in an
untrained state. Venomous was then ordered to join a flotilla of
similar 'old timers' at Harwich. However the declaration of war against
Germany came on Sept 3rd and we spent the first two or three weeks
escorting ships ferrying the British Expeditionary Force to France
during the nights and returning the following day. These escort duties
were good training in station keeping at the best speed the troop
carrying ships could make and without lights and, as yet no radar.
From Harwich our flotilla provided escort for east coast convoys,
taking over the duty from escorts based in the Forth at a variety of
rendezvous off the Yorkshire coast and handing over to Dover based
escorts off the Thames.
Occasional night encounters with German E boats gave us realistic
training in the basics of night action. Any aircraft heard and
occasionally seen were assumed to be sneak mine-layers and we did not
advertise our convoys presence by attempting to engage them with our
negligible anti-aircraft capability, one three inch single mounting and
a couple of machine guns."
*****
After Venomous he served in HMS Manchester,
was torpedoed twice and on the second occasion when she sank he was
imprisoned by the Vichy French in North Africa. He was in the POW camp
until the Allied landings in North Africa when he was released.
His
next appointment was to be Course Officer for the Long Gunnery Course
at Whale Island. On completion of that he was appointed to be Staff
Gunnery officer for a naval force being assembled prior to the
anticipated D Day landings, during which he directed naval gunfire
support and was awarded his second DSC (which had to be posted to him),
He was then appointed as Gunnery Officer to HMS Formidable, a carrier, preparing and then sailing for the Far Eastern theatre to assist the Americans. At the end of the war the Formidable
was tasked with trooping released POWs back to UK. After this he had a
staff appointment in the Admiralty for a couple of years, finally being
appointed to his last job in the RN as Commander XP at Whale Island,
the Gunnery School. Unfortunately gunfire induced deafness caught
up with him and he was invalided out in mid 1950 as Cdr D.A.R. Duff.
He then worked for Ferranti as Works Manager at Wythenshaw until retiring in about 1975.
The story of HMS Venomous is told by Bob Moore and Captain John Rodgaard USN (Ret) in
A Hard Fought Ship
Buy the new hardback edition online for £29 post free in the UK
Take a look at the Contents Page and List of Illustrations
